Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A few days ago I made myself a present (enriched by other goodies I will shortly illustrate you): I purchased a copy of the Becher Box by Norman Beierle & Hester Keijser (most of you will know them, have already heard about the box and know their awesome blog Mrs Deane), a set of twenty 13x17 cm (approx. 5x7 inch) dig­i­tal C-prints on Fuji DPII Glossy Pearl Paper from their Joghurt­becher series, where the Dutch duo remixes the Becher typologies in the funniest possible way.

Hester was so nice that she added a copy of their book Hier gebeurt nooit wat/Nothing ever happens here, basically their own reinterpretation of Joel Sternfeld's On This Site: twenty images depicting the sites where twenty sto­ries told by the res­i­dents of the town of Leeuwarder took place. The images are elegant low key urban landscapes, and the book is a delicious little object, from the cover (and the backcover with a sketchy groundglass) to the choice of paper and the sweet saddle-stitch binding.

Last but not least, Hester made me another surprise by shipping me the six posters collecting the portraits from their Mars 050 project, hilarious and yet sophisticated portraits showing exactly that kind of irony that I, as a glossy son of the Mediterranean sea, would call 'the Northern humour'.

Nothing nicer than blatantly promote the work made by friends: do I get something in return? Of course not, you suspicious misanthropes, it is simply really good stuff.